by ssjrem
Pretty much every year, there’s at least one Christmas movie that gets released the first weekend of November. And I just don’t get it. Literally, the very second that Halloween is over, we jump to Christmas. Well, I do get it, I guess. It’s all about money. Christmas movies generally have good legs and studios want them to have as long a ride as they possibly can, but no movie can maintain itself for two whole months. By the time Christmas actually rolls around, the movie has probably fallen out of the top ten or is at least close. I say release them on Thanksgiving weekend or the first weekend of December. You still get like four weeks to rake in the dough and then you get much bigger Christmas benefits because the picture is still relevant when the actual holiday rolls around. That’s just my opinion. I’m not a studio executive. I am but a lowly blogger. Anyway, let’s get this show on the road.
A Christmas Carol
I’m not alone in finding this motion capture animation shit really creepy. The Polar Express looked like one of the most profoundly disturbing movies I’ve ever seen. Thus, I never had any intention of seeing it and I’m not particularly interested in this latest adaption of A Christmas Carol. Most predictions, mine included, pegged this in the low to mid 40s range and it fell a bit short. A Christmas Carol grossed 31 million, which is kind of weak. Consider that Elf, a movie without any 3-D or other gimmicks, opened to the same exact figure six years ago. If I do say so myself, though, Elf is both a hilarious and heartwarming movie. Plus, I love Zooey Deschanel and she made the movie even better. But where is my mind? Yeah, this is kind of disappointing. Assuming it’s well-received though, it could still do quite well. We have Thanksgiving in three weeks and A Christmas Carol could see a nice bump from that. I’d still say it’s pretty much a lock for 100 million no matter what happens because Christmas movies, even those that aren’t particularly well-liked (The Santa Clause 3) still have good legs. So even though this is under expectations, I think that it’ll do fine in the long run.
Michael Jackson’s This is It
Yep, still using that same picture. This is It does actually hold pretty decently, especially for a concert movie. It fell 40% to 14 million, lifting the grand total up to about 58 million. So it’s definitely going to beat the Hannah Montana movie by a longshot and become the highest grossing concert movie of all time. Good for him, I guess. I still don’t understand the appeal of this movie, but people are weird. As for a grand total, I could see this potentially hitting somewhere around 85 to 90 million or so, handily beating Miley Cyrus’s 65 million. Even still, it’s nowhere near some of the more outlandish predictions, but all things considered, this is a success. Plus, MJ is really big overseas, which makes no sense to me at all. Any you slice it, this will end being quite profitable.
I saw The Men Who Stare at Goats on Friday. It’s pretty much inevitable that I’ll end up going to the movies once during a weekend. I gotta say, it just plain wasn’t funny. It wasn’t even good. I’ll probably have a review up sometime this week. I just didn’t get anything from this movie. Any remotely funny parts were in the trailer and it just kind of, well, sucked. It did pretty well at the box office, though, pulling in 13.3 million. It’s rocking a 59% at RT, so I’m not seeing good legs here. Its budget was only 25 million, though, so it should still end up being profitable.
The Fourth Kind does pretty decently, finishing just behind TMWSAG. 12.5 million is pretty solid for a horror flick kind of similar to Paranormal Activity. This has a dreadful 16% at RT and will probably fall apart after this weekend. It’s nice to see Milla Jovovich in something outside the Resident Evil franchise, though. Oh yeah, I just now noticed that it finished in fourth. An interesting coincidence, no?
Paranormal Activity fell 48%, its largest drop so far by a good margin, but it’s not that surprising given the fact that Halloween is passed us now. The gross stands at 97.4 million, so it’ll obviously get past 100, which is an astonishing accomplishment. Hmmmm, 8.6 million this weekend, but it’s just hard to judge what kind of path this will follow in the weeks to come. I’d say it could finish with anywhere from 110 to 135 million. Something like that.
The Box fares by far the worst among the four openers, finishing in sixth with just 7.9 million. The Box has a 45% at RT which, while better than The Fourth Kind, still kind of sucks. The Box is based on a Twilight Zone episode from back in the day. The episode was written by Richard Matheson, the author of I Am Legend. I really do recommend the book; it’s fantastic and way better than the movie. I’m not saying the movie was bad by any means; I enjoyed it a lot, but the book was great. Anyway……
This doesn’t make sense to me. Somehow Couples Retreat fell 0.5% percent. Yeah, half a percent. It didn’t add any theatres and hasn’t had great legs thus far, so I’m baffled. Regardless, a 6.4 million dollar weekend lifts it just shy of 100 million at 96 million. It’ll inch over that milestone and for such a critically reviled movie, that’s quite an accomplishment.
Law Abiding Citizen also falls an absurdly low amount, decling 17% to 6.2 million. This movie really surpassed expectations with a solid opening weekend and then decent legs all the way through. It’s up to 60 million now and could finish with about 70 or 75 or so, which is pretty close to as much as I possibly could’ve expected from this. Good for Gerard Butler. He deserves it.
Where the Wild Things Are finally has a decent hold, slipping 28% to 4.2 million. It really is extraordinary that Law Abiding Citizen had significantly better legs than WTWTA. Anyway, its gross is now up to 60 million, which is way below expectations. It won’t even come near Bridge to Terabithia. Speaking of which, I have yet to see that movie. I loved the book as a kid; I’ll have to check it out.
Anywho, in tenth we have Astro Boy managing to stick around. 2.6 million brings its meager grand total to 15 million. Against a 65 million budget, that sucks. But like I said last weekend, Summit will be fine with New Moon coming in two short weeks.
So there you have it. Second weekend in a row we have a movie underperform. Eh, it happens. Next weekend brings us Pirate Radio, but that’s only opening in 900 theatres and not expected to make a big splash. The big story next weekend is 2012. Now, you want to talk outlandish predictions, look no further. Lots of people are prediction numbers positively through the roof for this. There are a lot of people that think it can hit a 100 million opening weekend. I think they’re absolutely out of their fucking minds. If 2012 opens to more than 100 million I will buy everyone on the Chez staff a candy bar. There is NO WAY it will open that big. It’s just absurd. Personally, I think it might have a hard time even surpassing The Day After Tomorrow. I’ll call a 75-80 million weekend with 90 being the upper limit. But 100? I just can’t see that. We’ll see what goes down next weekend. Until we meet again.
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